Projections Movie Blog

In ‘Hereafter,’ Clint Eastwood asks eternal questions but offers no answers October 31, 2010 | Comment on this article

BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – As an actor, Clint Eastwood has dispatched more than his share of fictional adversaries into the great beyond. But as a director, when it comes to the mysterious passage from life to death, he admits he doesn’t have any answers. Only questions. And those are posed with admirable... Read More

Actor-singer Juliette Lewis makes big impression in small role

October 28, 2010 BY GENE TRIPLETT Juliette Lewis has come by her Hollywood rock ‘n’ roll wild child image honestly, picking film roles and playing music that are dangerous and different. Read More

DVD review: ‘The Lost World of Mr. Hardy’

October 28, 2010 An early-day ad for Rolls Royce depicts a pristine new automobile parked outside the Pall Mall shops of Hardy’s of London, purveyors since 1872 of the world’s finest fly fishing tackle. It was a just measure of brothers William and J.J. Hardy’s family business, its quality craftsmanship and sterling... Read More

Book looks at Charlie Chan through insightful Chinese perspective

October 28, 2010 Charlie Chan, the inscrutable Chinese detective of fiction and film, is often viewed today as a quaint, embarrassing relic of a time when America not only tolerated but embraced institutional racism in popular entertainment. Chan, who spoke in pidgin English, spouted Oriental homilies and was portrayed in scores... Read More

Spielberg keeps ‘Hereafter’ screenwriter in the dark

October 28, 2010 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – The vague eccentricities of movie moguls are something screenwriters have endured since the earliest days of Selznick, DeMille and Goldwyn. But British screenwriter Peter Morgan said he encountered a particularly odd and endearing one in the process of getting his new film,... Read More

Movie review: Sister wages 18-year war against 'Conviction'

October 28, 2010 “Conviction” is based on a true story full of complex and extraordinary people – good, bad and somewhere in between – that any audience would be eager to get to know and try to understand, and a stellar cast brings them vividly to life in this absorbing tale of love, loyalty and sacrifice from director Tony... Read More

Hilary Swank plays 'real-life hero' in 'Conviction'

October 28, 2010 BY GENE TRIPLETT TORONTO — For Hilary Swank, the best t hing about winning two Oscars is the chance to portray people like Betty Anne Waters. “There’s no doubt that as an actor, my passion lies in playing characters like Betty Anne,” Swank said, as the real Waters sat two chairs away wiping tears... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Slings and Arrows: The Complete Collection'

October 25, 2010 “Slings and Arrows: The Complete Collection” Every lover of live theater should make a pilgrimage to the fictional New Burbage Theatre Festival and experience the deliriously entertaining backstage doings of its dysfunctional Shakespearean troupe. Their antics were detailed with darkly comic brilliance in the... Read More

'Hereafter' looks at death, begins with roar

October 22, 2010 “Hereafter” begins placidly enough as it introduces us to Parisian TV news anchor Marie Lelay, vacationing at a balmy Indonesian beach resort with her producer-lover. While on an early morning shopping stroll to buy souvenirs, Marie and others in the busy street market become vaguely aware of a far-off roar and... Read More

'Psycho' at 50: Alfred Hitchcock's daring foray into psychological horror broke the rules

October 22, 2010 QUOTABLE “It blew my mind. It terrified me. I think it made me aware of something that I had never dealt with before, which was not just my own mortality but what Hitchcock was able to do was take something that was ordinary — like taking a shower was ordinary, everybody in America took a shower — and he... Read More

Clint Eastwood determined to make films ’til he’s 100

October 21, 2010 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – At 80 years old, Clint Eastwood says he is not ready to hang up his spurs as a filmmaker. The actor turned four-time Oscar winning producer-director (for producing and directing “Unforgiven,” producing “Million Dollar Baby,” and for lifetime achievement with the Irving... Read More

Being John Malkovich: Serious about his passions, but not himself

October 20, 2010 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – Being John Malkovich – consummate film and stage actor, theatrical impresario, opera director, disco owner, clothing designer, international bon vivant – is clearly something the man relishes while not taking himself too seriously. While mixing it up with journalists during a... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Wallander: Series 2'

October 18, 2010 This week, the most interesting DVD to appear on release lists is: “Wallander: Series 2” As fans of bleak, Nordic crime dramas eagerly await the final film of Steig Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy (“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”), an equally compelling trilogy of chilly Swedish whodunits comes... Read More

Helen Mirren goes from ‘Queen' to killer with ‘Red'

October 15, 2010 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK — Imagine Martha Stewart brandishing a blazing automatic weapon, dispatching scores of marauding thugs, then going home, tying on an apron and a sweet smile and baking a cake. That’s essentially the image Helen Mirren had in mind when she stepped into the role of Victoria, retired... Read More

Movie review: All-star cast powerful in action tale of retired spies

October 15, 2010 Maybe they’re rusty relics of the 007 days, when the espionage game seemed to be played with a sly wink by operatives on both sides of the Iron Curtain. But the retired secret agents of the revved-up “Red” prove that there is still loads of firepower and dark humor in their over-the-hill spy craft.... Read More

Movie review: 'Never Let Me Go' a haunting lesson in impermanence of life, love

October 15, 2010 “Never Let Me Go” brings together the seemingly incompatible elements of sci-fi horror and the warm visual and emotional colors of bittersweet British romance to create a story of life, love, sacrifice and mortality that haunts long after the end credits roll. Director Mark Romanek (“One Hour Photo”) and... Read More

Retirement? Stars of ‘Red' don't see the point of it

October 15, 2010 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK — The reluctantly retired spies of “Red” find their enforced idleness a soul-deadening curse. So when they’re forced to take up arms again to battle a nefarious government conspiracy, they are born anew. During a recent news conference for the film hosted by Summit Entertainment,... Read More

'Never Let Me Go' star Andrew Garfield talks hard truths and Spider-Man

October 14, 2010 BY GENE TRIPLETT TORONTO — Andrew Garfield is here to fulfill his promotional obligations for “Never Let Me Go” but he’s bound to get caught in a web of “Spider-Man” questions before the interview is through. Still, the handful of journalists around the table first dutifully address the movie at... Read More

From ‘Marty’ to ‘McHale’s Navy’ to ‘SpongeBob,’ Ernest Borgnine’s done it all

October 13, 2010 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – At 93, Ernest Borgnine is happy to share the secret of his success with anyone who asks. “I’m the laziest man in the world. No really, I’m the laziest guy in the world,” the robust Borgnine said during a recent press conference for his new film, “Red.” “Simply because... Read More

Tim Blake Nelson goes to comic, tragic extremes with ‘Leaves of Grass'

October 13, 2010 BY GENE TRIPLETT When a filmmaker goes to wildly unorthodox extremes of comedy and tragedy within a single story, he’d better expect the reviews to run to extremes as well. That’s what Tulsa native Tim Blake Nelson has weathered with “Leaves of Grass.” “Some reviewers really loathe it because it’s... Read More

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About the writers

Dennis King

Movie Critic

King spent 31 years as an ink-stained wretch working for newspapers in Seminole, Ada, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. He holds a B.A. degree in English from the University of Central Oklahoma and for 16 years served as an adjunct instructor in journalism and English at Tulsa Community College. For 20 years, he was full-time film critic at the Tulsa World.

In 2006, he left Tulsa and along with his wife, Suzan (a retired English professor), moved to a cabin in Dingmans Ferry, PA. There, along the banks for the Delaware River, he chased after two rambunctious Labrador retrievers, fly fished the waters of the Poconos and did his best to become a full-time trout bum. Still scratching a writer’s itch, he freelanced articles for Explorer magazine and Gray’s Sporting Journal and wrote a stage play about classic movies and old movie theaters, titled “Spirits of the Coronado” (after his long-gone boyhood theater at 39th Street and MacArthur Boulevard).

In December, he and Suzan moved into an apartment in upper Manhattan, where they plan to eat bagels for breakfast and street-cart hot dogs for lunch, haunt the Angelika Theater and the Film Forum, go to plays and museums, ride the subways, complain about the subways and generally live like true New Yorkers.

Gene Triplett

Entertainment Editor

Gene Triplett is another Oklahoma newspaper dinosaur who's been cranking out copy for 34 years, first at the upstart, long defunct Oklahoma Journal, covering just about every news beat imaginable, then at The Oklahoman, where's he's bounced back and forth from features to the news side as assistant city editor, city editor and entertainment editor, managing to hold down the latter position for more than 10 years. He holds a B.A. degree in journalism -- also from the University of Central Oklahoma -- and, also like his colleague King, chases after two loony Labrador retrievers. He does not live by a trout-filled river, but he and his wife Carol do own a swimming pool, much to the delight of their dogs.

The Tripletts enjoy gourmet outdoor cooking year-round (rain, sleet or snow), entertaining friends, road trips to scenic wooded parks that rent rustic lakeside cabins, listening to music, watching classic movies and, in the summertime, swimming with their dogs.